This application claims the priority of German patent Application No. 100 02 065.8 filed Jan. 18, 2000, which is incorporated herein by reference.
The invention relates to a method for operating a jukebox having
a disc changer for discs containing a plurality of music titles, particularly CDs,
at least one disc magazine,
at least one playback unit,
a computer-controlled disc-transport device, and
a display device for displaying the music titles of the discs, with an associated address that encompasses a respective disc address and a title address, with the music titles of a disc being displayed together and selected through keystrokes.
Jukeboxes offer the user a large number of music selections, typically in the order of magnitude of several hundred individual musical compositions; currently, a single compact disc (CD) can store more than, for example, 20 musical compositions. A program manager embodied as a display device usually offers the selection options; the user deposits a specified amount of money into the jukebox, then chooses one or more desired musical selections and uses a keypad to enter the corresponding identification of the selection(s) into the selection system of the jukebox, thereby initiating the playing process.
The discs housed in the jukebox are stored in a disc magazine that has a plurality of superposed compartments, with one disc holder that holds a respective disc being allocated a compartment. After a desired music title has been selected, the corresponding disc is retrieved, with the disc holder, from the disc magazine and transported by a computer-controlled transport device to a drive for playing the music title. Afterward, the transport device transports the disc and the disc holder back into the corresponding compartment of the disc magazine. Often, such devices have a plurality of disc magazines, which are typically exchangeable, so the transport device conveys the discs between numerous disc magazines. WO 93/11535 discloses a disc-playback device of this type, the device having two oppositely-located disc magazines in a housing.
DE-C-23 07 309 discloses a jukebox display device that includes a plurality of superposed, parallel, polygonal drums that rotate about axial shaft ends and have a plurality of essentially planar viewing surfaces with retaining elements for holding a strip card provided with a visually-readable display. The polygonal drums are coupled to a drive device; when this device is actuated, all of the polygonal drums are rotated simultaneously by the same angular path, so a different viewing surface of each polygonal drum is rotated into the viewing position. To expand the program selection, numerous such display devices can be disposed adjacently. This solution only allows the program selection to be increased to a certain extent, however, because the space requirement for polygonal drums containing, for example, more than one thousand music titles becomes excessive.
DE-A-40 01 785 discloses a display device, particularly for music titles, in a jukebox. Here, two adjacent stacks of information carriers are disposed vertically one behind the other in a frame housing; their front side is embodied as a display surface. The two stacks travel stepwise and synchronously toward one another, offset by an interval equal to the thickness of an information carrier.
Hence, a relatively large viewing surface, on the one hand, and a relatively large amount of space for the disc magazines and the display device, on the other hand, are required for displaying and playing a large selection of music titles. Furthermore, of the available musical compositions, only a few are frequently requested by the circle of users, and they must be searched for among the multitude of available selections. This search is often time-consuming, because the music titles of no more than two discs can be displayed simultaneously on each display surface of the display device, even if a disc includes only a few titles.
It is the object of the invention to provide a method for operating a jukebox of the type mentioned at the outset, with which a large, varied selection of music titles can be presented in an inexpensive, compact embodiment.
In accordance with the invention, this object is accomplished in that individual music titles of various discs are combined into a group, assigned a new target address that encompasses a group address and a title address, and displayed together in the display device.
Combining the group with individual music titles of physically present discs allows for a highly-variable jukebox selection, because the display in the display device is not limited to the music titles of real discs, but is expanded by the group displayed as a separate disc. Here, the number of groups and group addresses can be freely selected. If the number of groups is larger than the number of discs, they expand the title selection. If the number of groups is smaller than the number of discs, the group replaces the corresponding disc with the same address. Numerous different groups can be created, such as groupings of frequently-selected country, rock, classical and pop hits. Consequently, the jukebox is relatively simple to operate, because the user must no longer search for these hits among the many available music titles, but is presented with them as a group in a common display. The common group address creates the impression that this group is an existing compact disc.
It is also possible for the display device not to display all of the music titles of the available discs, but only the released music titles. The unreleased music titles, so-called filler titles, are disregarded in the grouping process and are therefore not displayed, so the display device is relatively inexpensive to produce. A specific title address can also allow the music titles of an entire disc to be incorporated as a single music title into a group, so the entire disc can be played when this title address is selected. This option is particularly advantageous for extended playing of background music that is likewise assigned its own group. The groups can be created by, for example, a jukebox manufacturer based on the jukebox setup. Corresponding to the jukebox programming, of course, the number of information carriers displayed in the display device can be larger or smaller than the number of discs.
The jukebox computer advantageously creates a link between the address of the disc music title and the target address. These links are created with a relatively small amount of calculation, so a number of addresses of physically present music titles can be linked with corresponding stored target addresses, even with a severely-limited computer capacity.
To assure rapid access to the desired music titles with relatively simple memory management, each group is preferably displayed as a virtual disc and stored in a computer memory.
For simply exchanging the groups, each group of music titles is advantageously stored in a separate file. It is also possible to store all groups of music titles in a common file. In this instance, the file can have, for example, a database structure that utilizes preset search and sort commands to assure the relatively simple creation of a new group from existing groups.
The file is preferably stored in a physical storage medium of the computer. The physical storage medium, such as a hard disk, a flash PROM, a battery-buffered RAM or the like, guarantees reliability in the archiving of the stored file.
The file is advantageously programmed in the jukebox itself, or programmed on an external computer and transmitted to the jukebox computer by way of a network connection or a data remote transfer. While programming in the jukebox is effected without additional devices, programming on an external computer offers the convenience of transmitting a file that has been created one time to the computers of several jukeboxes by way of the network connection or remote data transmission. Moreover, auxiliary programs can be installed onto an external computer for facilitating file programming.
In a conventional embodiment of the display device, information carriers that correspond in number to the number of discs and groups can be used to display the music titles. Thus, the jukebox user can directly access the entire selection; it is necessary here to create special information carriers for the groups.
A monitor that is coupled to the computer is preferably used to display the music titles. This assures an individual display of the music titles; all of the music titles of the discs and groups can be displayed, or only the music titles of the groups can be displayed. After the groups are changed, the display of the group music titles also changes automatically.
According to an advantageous embodiment of the invention, the computer controls the display of the groups. The display and/or selection of certain groups can be enabled or blocked by the association of specific attributes. This can be effected, for example, with defined time windows as a function of the days of the week. It is therefore possible to enable or block background sounds, animation sounds and/or advertisements.
Of course, the features mentioned above and described in detail below can be used not only in the given combination, but in other combinations as well, within the spirit of the present invention.
The invention is described in detail below by way of an exemplary embodiment, with reference to the attached drawings.